My Picky Ass Senegel.......... Fly Enclosure anyone?

jadeaudio · Sep 13, 2009

Busting my butt trying to get this picky eater to eat. He doesn't eat crickets anymore, he will eat a superworm if he doesn't eat for 2 days, but it is very difficult because I have to put it on a leaf and usually they move so fast that they fall to the ground. If I throw a fly in there he nabs it instantly. Maybe I spoiled him when I gave him flies because that is all he wants now. Here is a PIC of me trying to give him a horn worm. I guess they do not move enough for his liking. He denies silkworms too. I left one in there before and the next morning the whole plant was full of silk. Looks like spider webs.... Anyways, so I have tried almost everything, so I guess I am stuck with flies.

I know I can buy them from Mantisplace, but is there anyway of storing them better. You can buy this cup of flies thing, but it is tiny. Anybody out there make a cool enclosure for flies where you can get them out without getting loose in your house? I need some ideas.

jadeaudio · Sep 13, 2009

Also anyone know if flies have enough nutrients for a Cham? I've purchased the regular house flies, but they are too small. This time around I am getting the blue bottle flies. Hopefully they come out bigger, but I am just pondering how I can keep 100 flies enclosed and easily accessible so that I can nab like 3 to 4 of them a day and put them in the Cham enclosure without a bunch of flies getting loose in my house.

Digby Rigby · Sep 14, 2009

Panchlora nivea

Panchlora nivea aka green banana roaches. Males as adults are around a half inch females more massive and just under an inch as adults they climb and fly, although easier to catch than flies. Their green color makes them very appaling to chameleons and mantids that like flying insects fairly easy to culture also.

Digby Rigby [email protected]

sandrachameleon · Sep 14, 2009

I wouldnt rely soley on Flies. If he's hungry, he will eat other insects, and I would ecourage him to do so by NOT giving in to his desire for flies.

xanthoman · Sep 14, 2009

bbfs are about half again as large as house flies and there is info at the mantisplace on how to feed them. there are a couple of ways to deal with them , first seperate your pupae from the actual flies and keep your pupae refridgerated to slow them down form maturing into flies , you can also put hatched flies in the fridge for about 10 min to slow them down to the point where they can only walk then you can just pick them out with foam tipped lrge tweezers or if there is no bedding or food in with them you can just sprinkle them like sugar, (they will be flying again within a couple of min of being brought back out into the warm) one way is to prepare a container (like shown at themantisplace) with about 3 days worth of flies, with food and water and have a about a 3/8" hole drilled in the lid, put a bamboo skewer in it and they will walk up the skewer a few at a time , when your chams have had enough , just pull the skewer and put a piece of tape over the hole and you can leave the culture right in the tank, when you see your chams displaying interest in the container again, just pull the tape, put the skewer back in (skewer is optional) and close the door, you can just use adhesive fly strips to catch any that escape. one advantage that bbs have over house flies is that when they escape they almost always head to the window, so if you have a screened window by your cage, escapees will almost certainly end up there , then you can just let your cham hang on the screen until all of the escapees are gobbled up. if you do the window screen thing be carefull not to let any wildflies intermix. i find that bbfs are far easier to deal with than crickets and my adult cages arent even screen (see avatar)